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With four pages, no breaking news, no photos and a different name, the first edition of the Daily Dramatic Chronicle is almost unrecognizable when compared with today’s San Francisco Chronicle.
But the newsrooms of the 1860s and 2010s definitely shared some similar vibes: The earliest version of The Chronicle’s work space was filled with memorable characters, whose desks weren’t very neat, and a leadership that was investing in new technologies. Meanwhile, the editors and writers were thinking about the rapidly changing state of journalism — an unknown future filled with possibility and potential.
The Chronicle was founded by brothers Charles and M.H. de Young in 1865, as a theater listings sheet that was distributed mostly in hotels. Within months, The Chronicle was covering news, sports and business, with a loud editorial voice that critiqued and at times seemed to guide the city’s progress.
The early Chronicle was a newspaper of mission, taking strong stances backed by its owners. In the 20th century, however, The Chronicle became a paper of personalities. Herb Caen’s first column in 1938 was a landmark, and iconic voices, including Stanton Delaplane, Art Hoppe, Charles McCabe, Ralph Gleason and Pauline Phillips (better known as Dear Abby), emerged as well. World War II photographers Joe Rosenthal and Bob Campbell led a photo staff filled with pros, many of whom spent three or more decades at The Chronicle.
The Scott Newhall era from the 1950s until the early 1970s marked one of the paper’s most flamboyant periods, as the executive editor favored headlines often paired with an element of fun (“A Great City Forced to Drink Swill”). The modern era started with progressive turns in the 1970s, including hiring Randy Shilts, who covered the AIDS crisis. Gary Larson’s The Far Side started in the Chronicle Features Syndicate in 1980. Three of the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prizes came in the 1990s and 2000s, awarded to architecture critic Allan Temko (1990), Caen (1996) and photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice (2005). William German, who became executive editor, made everything run perfectly.
SFGate went online in 1994, quickly becoming one of the largest media sites in the nation. The Hearst Corp. bought The Chronicle from the de Young heirs in 2000, merging the staffs of The Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner — placing journalists including Phil Matier and Andy Ross, Leah Garchik, Michael Bauer and Tom Stienstra under one banner for the first time. SFChronicle.com launched in 2013.
Jeff Johnson, hired in 2013, is just the paper’s eighth publisher in 150 years. Audrey Cooper is the first female editor in chief and one of the youngest top editors at a major metropolitan newspaper. SFGate and The Chronicle now have 30 million monthly readers in print and online — proof of our aggressive push to digital journalism.
But we’ll continue to remember where we came from. Living in the present with an eye on the future doesn’t mean forgetting the past.
